


Ride the Dragon

by Eleint



Category: Original Work
Genre: Canadian spelling, Dragons, Fantasy, Gen, Magic, Magical Realism, Subway, Toronto, transportation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 16:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9665933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eleint/pseuds/Eleint
Summary: In some worlds, fantasy and reality have blurry lines.In some worlds, dragons exist.So too do Toronto's subway lines.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a play on the TTC's slogan: "Ride the Rocket"

Every city has its secrets: The restaurant all the locales frequent with the freshest coffee, the small parks that no one would imagine existed, a bright splash of color against grey walls, the stores that never seem to be in the same place twice, but they’re always there when you need something...

And Toronto? Toronto has dragons. 

Nobody really remembers them, all caught up in their daily commutes, the crowds rushing through as they make their way from the streets to the subway platforms. There are no questions; the rumble in the earth, small bursts of steam, and overly warm stations just were. Anyway, it’s just the trains operating as they should be, and warm sewer runoff misting in the chill air. As for the heat, well, they can just shed their jacket. Though you’d think the place would want to save on bills, all those taxpayer dollars going towards high heating costs. ( _Tsk tsk, such a waste._ ) Every little eccentricity remarked upon, and then forgotten as small talk gives way to catching a few minutes of sleep. 

But know this – drop a subway token, and it will never be seen again. 

And at the start of any endeavour, something must be overcome, be it apathy, high costs, or hours and hours of talks and committees. 

But the hardest truth is that every city was wild once, the land knows this. Every city grows at the cost of its past histories. It builds upon the bones of what came before. Tree stumps, old riverbeds, older peoples, all buried in the name of progress. That was Toronto. It still is, though it took years for the trouble to be apparent. 

The population grew, and so did the City. However, as new ground was broken and buildings made, certain buildings would not stand. _There were faults in the bedrock,_ the builders all said. _No foundation could be established, and without the bones how would you build?_ Eventually, some refused contracts to build there. Others enjoyed the challenge, and the exorbitant fees they received even if all they gained was failure after failure, until there had been too much money wasted. The city could not afford to continue 

At their wits end, the council in charge sought other assistance. From science, and faith, and magic, for why seek one opinion, when you can argue over several? (This is government. It was expected that they chose the difficult and most contentious route to getting things done.) And so, the consultants came.

> “Perhaps there is some oddity in the soil,” suggested a geologist. Their team busily setting out the instruments to capture and record different parameters.
> 
> “Perhaps there is some unholy spirit,” suggested the priest, who went to study old Church texts for an exorcism. 
> 
> “Perhaps the land is angry,” suggested the magician, who was both more and less than advertised. There are many branches of magic, and some cannot be talked about. They went to look into the histories of the city. 

And so they worked. Each group reporting at day’s end what the problem wasn’t:

> “No, it wasn’t the soil, but there are some readings that have to be looked over again.”
> 
> “No, it wasn’t a spirit, nor ghost, nor demon. It does not listen.”
> 
> “No, it isn’t the land. It’s been quiescent for a long time. Nothing here is ill-intentioned.”

And on it went, piece by piece, the picture came together.

There were creatures, under the earth. Not just any old creatures, but dragons. For what else could they be? And oh, they weren’t the traditional dragons so feared by the Old World’s western people; these were wingless, short-limbed, blind. Wyrms, who lived below, carving out passages in the dark rock. The digging above had disturbed them, drawing them towards the surface, where they had caused buildings to collapse.


End file.
